


Sasuke the cat

by Kiyonek



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Cat Uchiha Sasuke, Depression, First Kiss, Fix-It of Sorts, Hokage Uzumaki Naruto, M/M, No Chapter 700 (Naruto), POV Uzumaki Naruto, Pets, Pining, Post-Chapter 699 (Naruto), Sun and Moon Challenge 2019, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 08:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17403101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiyonek/pseuds/Kiyonek
Summary: The Hokage feels lonely and gets attached to a stray cat. If the cat just happened to be like Sasuke it is just a coincidence.





	Sasuke the cat

**Author's Note:**

> I made this as part of the #SunandMoonChallenge2019 on tumblr.

It was just another cold evening on the streets of Konoha. After the fourth great war relationships between the five Shinobi nations had taken a turn for the best. It is normal to see citizens of Kiri going on vacations in Suna, and also some Suna citizens taking in the sights of Kumo. And despite the rocky history between the land of fire and the land of earth, some Iwa shinobi can be seen taking a respite on fire’s hot springs. 

So, the many foreigners coming and going through the gate shouldn’t be that big of a change. The busy air, the kids running down the streets, the shinobi jumping from building to building, and the many restaurants just opening up to what seemed to be another sleepless night; it all just added up to the a sight of a new Konoha, a happy dream finally coming truth.

A dream  _ he _ wasn’t part of, an incomplete one. 

December has given pass to another new year and the end of a long lasting journey. At least a break from it, or so it seems. The mission report seated at his desk announces a possible return, there is no date or promise, just a possibility, and for Naruto it is all that matters. 

There is a sudden knock at the door and then his smile turns into a grimace.

It is just Shikamaru, reporting some changes he deemed necessary on the ANBU patrols. The business district has been in a steady growth for the last two years, and there has been some talk about expanding the village limits since the last months of Kakashi’s administration. Naruto wants to make that big step, but expanding the village also means taking down a portion of the wall and build up another one. They have to be careful and plan strategically, even if these are peaceful times it doesn’t mean that an attack like the one Orochimaru did couldn’t happen again. Taking up the hat is so much more than assigning missions, it is a responsibility that Naruto, even now, isn’t sure it he is up for. But dammit if he isn’t going to try! 

“I am taking this to ANBU’s headquarters,” Shikamaru says, taking up some some of the mission scrolls Naruto already had gone through. “Before you spill some ramen on them again.”

“That was just one time-dattebayo!” 

“You should not eat here, in the first place.”

He practically lives here, he may as well, “And where am I supposed to?! This paperwork never ends!”

Shikamaru rolls his eyes, “Mendokusei, just go home.”

 

***

 

There are many reasons why he doesn’t like to go home, since the divorce many things aren’t right, but the one that comes to mind the most is the silence. 

The place is too big, a home for a family of four and not at all compatible with the one-man-unit Naruto has always stood for. Maybe he should not had sold his old apartment, with all it’s bittersweet memories of a parentless childhood and also the determination of doing better, of reaching that dream he so foolishly hanged on. However, he already reached that dream and starting a new life with Hinata at his side didn’t sound bad at all.

It didn’t, until he wasn’t sure if this was his dream anymore. 

As it is now, the house feels strange and not homie at all. It brings up a sense of failure and guilt about everything he has done. He isn’t sure of what he is doing anymore, but at least in his office he can pretend everything is fine, he can still do better.

Going home isn’t the highlight of his days, and so he walks at an easy pace. As a training exercise he goes through the scenic route while actively trying to not be noticed, being Hokage makes you more notorious to any bystanders. However, at some point he always ends taking the alleyways. Even with all the reparations the village has gone through after Pain’s attack, they are still familiar, an scape. 

More so than always since he meet that stray cat. 

He, or at least Naruto thinks it is a he, tends to be around the residential area near his house. He is never in the same place, nor does Naruto know where he sleeps, but there is always one constant: the blond always finds him. It takes time, he isn’t going to lie, but it is worth it to see the black figure tense and those dark eyes take him in with a threat in their deeps. 

Sasuke, Naruto will always call with a smile.

Sasuke is a sneaky cat, more times than not he runs at the first glance of blond hair. Naruto will then give chase without any real intention of catching him. At the end of their little race, Naruto makes always sure to leave some cat food around the general area he knows the cat has hidden on, before retreating to some roof and observing. It have taken some days but by now Sasuke will finally approach the food without giving it too much of a second thought. Naruto calls this success. 

_ “That cat is so similar to that damned Uchiha kid that it is not even funny”  _

“It is funny-dattebayo! Just look at how he is still running away from me! Brings back memories…”

_ “That is exactly why it is not funny” _

Maybe Kurama is right. Trying to fill the silence this way shouldn’t be healthy. Naruto knows that he misses the days in which team seven would go out on simple catch Tora mission. But he can’t leave this cat without his meal of the day, can he?

 

***

 

One of his many kage bunshins on patrol vanishes, and the memories that rush back to him make his hand movement stop still over the scroll. 

“...there is also the matter with the Daimayo’s wife, she clearly wants to try and propose a marriage between you and her daughter, Mendokusei… Naruto?”

His eyes glace back to Shikamaru’s curious glare and he offers a nervous smile in return, “Sorry, I turned to slept late last night, did you say marriage?” 

Something in the air shifted, those words carrying a heavier weight than expected when Naruto says them. It just takes a second before it hits him, the failure and all those feelings that normally wash over him when he gets back home. He can still see the tears running down Hinata’s face when he closes his eyes…

Shikamaru sighs, “Nothing really, just bothersome women.” 

Naruto nods and he supposes that that is truth. He still has a fan club, and it was just a matter of time before people started to send love letters again. As Ino would say, he is back in the market. Not that he has talked with Ino or any of the girls for that matter, apart from receiving an earful from Sakura, he is clearly in their blacklist. 

He is thankful that at least Shikamaru still cares.

“Anyway, make sure to take only ten on each meeting, I am tired of having to deal with a line of angry people at the door.”

“I will do my best, believe it!”

Shikamaru turned around and make his way to the door while murmuring, “I should not have taken this job, Mendokusei…” 

The door closed and silence again took over the office. Normally he doesn’t mind, the office is his safe haven. In moments like this he could make a pair of kage bunshins and go through all the paperwork of the day in a more easier manner.  

But now the silence just helps in making those memories real.

_ [Caught a trail, moving back east - S]  _  the hawk-delivered-scroll said. The bunshin destroying it before delivering the information in a much more faster way, by disappearing. 

The before last message comes back to mind, “Back soon, need supplies, uh?” 

Naruto’s hand continues writing the next possible patrol schedule. Kurama stays thankfully silent.

 

***

 

It was just another normal day on his already too boring life as Hokage when coming back home he found a group of kids playing on one of the many alleys. It wasn’t odd, kids run through alleyways while playing ninja. He himself at the age of ten still used these paths as a ways of escaping from angry villagers. The thing is that there are many motives why this scene should not be odd at all, he should continue and make sure that none of them recognize him as the hokage, but he can’t.

There were some very low and familiar hissing that he could hear in between the children’s laughter. 

“What are you kids doing-ttebayo?” 

The children visibly jumped, and then turned nervous but also excited eyes his way, “Hokage-sama!” one of them said with a big smile, “we were playing ninja!” the rest of the kids, a group of four, nodded in agreement with smiles in their faces. 

“With a cat?” 

“I just got a new set of kunai knives and wanted to try it on a moving target!” The kid looked, by all purposes, as if that was the best idea he has ever gone by.

His stomach dropped. There was a reason why the academy coaster does not include killing animals. Probably something similar to what Zabuza did at his academy graduation exam. Killing is something that nowadays kids could only confront on B rank mission, and the very odd C rank out there. Hunting is another matter whatsoever, but that is why there are jounin instructors. 

_ “And you humans used to call us monsters” _

Naruto ignored Kurama’s remark in favor of getting a closer look of that cat, and surprise, it was Sasuke. He was alert, with an arching back and fur standing on end he was nursering an obviously hurt paw, and sporting what looked like more dirt than usual on his back, probably got some rocks throw at him. 

“You should not be doing this, practicing on a moving target isn’t going to help your technique,” he is glad that this kids suck at throwing kunai, “It is bad to hurt someone that doesn’t want to play, some cats can not talk for themselves-ttebayo.” He shot them his best  _ ‘The Hokage is dissapointed of you _ ’ stare before telling them to go home and not do this again. The kids didn’t need to hear more before guiltily scrambling away. 

The cat relaxed a little bit but still eyed the blond man with suspicion. 

_ “Great, what now kid?” _

He can’t posibly leave Sasuke the cat like this.

It takes some scraches and a particularly bloody one on his chin, that Naruto  _ swears _ the cat looks proud of, before finally getting a hold on him and making a detour to the Inuzuka compound.

 

***

 

Hana Inuzuka tells him with a deadpan face that she is a ninja dog vet, but then proceeds to examine Sasuke’s leg. It would seem that more times than not she gets non-dog patients and has long given up. 

“There is no lasting damage, you only need to apply a special ointment and change the bandages everyday. She will be fine.”

“She?” Naruto asked dumbfooled. 

_ “Well, at least there is a difference with the Uchiha kid.” _

Hana looked at him curiously, as if she finally realized she was talking to the Hokage or some dumb guy who didn’t know the sex of his own pet, “She is not yours?” 

“No, I… found her on an alley, some kids were playing ninja on her-ttebayo.”

The woman hummed thoughtly, a sad smile on her face, “that is too bad, she seems lonely.”

Kurama snorts,  _ “A match made in heaven.” _

Naruto mentally sends an annoyed ‘shut up’ his way, and thanking the Inuzuka carefully picked Sasuke (Sasukia?) up. She was more calm than before, not entirelly relaxed, but at least she wasn’t activelly trying to get the blond’s eyes out. 

Out of options he just started his way back home. Maybe he should adopt her after all, she does need to be taken care of, but that means that he should be home more often. What does a cat need anyway? Would it be like having an Akamaru of his own? He wouldn’t lie that he was jealous of Kiba’s relationship with his dog. The more he thought about it, the more appealing the idea sounded.

And then, suddenly, Sasuke jumped out of his arms and down a nondescript alley before desappearing altogether. 

Naruto can hear Kurama’s laugther taking up his mental landscape.

 

***

 

Naruto doesn’t gives up. He didn’t back during the war while confronting the odds with Madara and later on Kaguya. So a little rejection from a stray cat will not be the first time. 

He ends up in the same rutine, chasing after Sasuke with the only difference that he actually wants to catch her. And when he does, he carefully applies the ointment and replaces old bandages with new ones. After that, he takes out a can of cat food and place it in the floor between them, the difference from before is that he stays there as still as he can while Sasuke warily eats. 

Sometimes Naruto talks quietly about his days, and when he runs out of things to say (because nothing happens nowadays) he goes back in time and talks about team seven, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, Sai, and eventually ends up talking about Sasuke. Always Sasuke.

“...Anyway, he is an asshole an a terrible friend. Who dissapears for two whole years? I don’t even remenber the last time I saw him, dattebayo.” However, he does. It was sometime after the near moon-apocalyse, he came back ready to be a Konoha shinobi, and then he was out of the village again, doing odd missions in between setting up Jiraiya’s old information net, “He… should have come for the wedding…” But he didn’t, and Naruto is glad. The congratulations letter hurt him enough. 

That day it all started to feel wrong. 

_ “It was obvious how much in love you were with him. Who refuses to be Hokage because his friend, who tried to murder him in different occasions, wasn’t there to celebrate?” _

“I promised…” Oddly enough, now that sounded nothing more than excuses.

_ “You were a fool for believing that was all there was to it.” _

Naruto smiled a sad smile, remenbering what he once tell Jiraiya about running after Sasuke and bringing him back, “If chasing after him makes me a fool, them I will be a fool for the rest of my life, dattebayo...”

_ “Mm, you did said that. Exactly what a fool in love would say.” _

He was fucked.

And Sasuke the cat was looking at him as if he was a crazy old-man for talking with himself in an alley, but well, she better get used to it. 

Naruto stretched out his hand to pet her and to his surprise she left him. 

For a whole five seconds before scratching and bitting his hand off.

Love hurts.

 

***

 

After another stressful meeting with the Daimayo, and his fruitless attempts to hint what a  _ wonderful _ addition to the family he could be, he made his way as unconspicious as possible to Ichiraku ramen. Ayame has taken up the business and expanded it a bit, but the ramen is still as delicious as ever. At least old Ichiraku is still around, just too tired to be up during opening and closing times. 

He was eating his fourth miso ramen, while keeping up a henge and avoiding an encounter with any of his fans, when he saw them. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata, the old team eigth taking over a table at the corner of the restaurant. 

His heart skipped a beat.

He tried to ignore them and keep to his ramen, but no matter what he did he always ended staring their way. Kiba and Shino were talking about something, and Hinata would comment once or twice. Obviously flustered about something, he can see it in the way her cheeks turns on red, and not for the first time he asked himself: Why he could not love Hinata Hyuuga? 

She is brave, she has determination, and is the best wife that anybody could possibly have. So why, when she asked for kids, he demanded the divorce? 

_ “Commitment? Scared of being a father? The Uchiha kid?” _

They were already married, and Sasuke clearly doesn’t want something to do with him anymore. Naruto moved on, or at least he tried to, but having kids of his own? He knows he is scared. He loves the village, has given everything to be were he is today, and being Hokage is the only thing that feels rigth nowadays. Having a kid? He could not do it, not when he isn’t sure if he loves their mother. Not when he could play out a Minato and put the village before any of his kids. 

Hinata was a band-aid. A beautiful one, but he could not lie to her and himself for the rest of their lifes. 

“Another miso ramen?” Ayame ask with a knowing smile, probably already seen througth his deception. Not that he tries too hard anyway. She loves to find him out in the crowd, just another game that feels rigth.

“No, thanks, Ayame-chan. I think I should go back before Shikamaru sends someone to find me, dattebayo.” It used to be Sakura, but nowadays she locks herself up in the hospital.

 

***

 

Odly enough, that day in which he has to put the village before anything else comes sooner than expected, but he does it anyway. 

There was a leak, someone got information on when and how they were planning on taking out the west portion of the wall for the expansion, and an attack took place. It wasn’t a big one, and Yamato-Taichou was there to help the contruction crew in the first place, but there were still casualties, both civilian and shinobi. The threat was neutralized and contained before he even got there, an extremist group of nuke-nin that after some interrogation with Ino and Ibiki reveled to be some kind of followers of Akatsuki’s ideals. It was a suicidal attack, and they knew it, to go after the biggest shinobi village with one of the most powerful kage, all for making a point: Peace can be broken anytime, we are just waiting for the shoe to drop. 

Naruto didn’t want to say it but they were rigth in that aspect. Nothing is perfect, his own life is an ideal example.

He sended some kage bunshin to the wall, if not to help then as a means of scaring other attackers off, and then went to the homes of every deceased shinobi and civilian to pay his condolences. Shikamaru said that it wasn’t nessecary, that he could just send some letters expresing his respects, but Naruto profundly disagreed. 

Bringing some sense of calmness over the village, and having to fill more paperwork that is humanly posible, holed him up in his office for three whole days. Something that he used to do with more frecuency back in the day, when he didn’t have Sasuke to look for on his way home.

And so he notices his mistake and makes a hastled exit. 

Some civilians look out from their windows and balconies curiously, they see as their hokage and various kage bunshin go over all the alleys over Konoha while calling out for his auto-exiled teammate. Some of the old “Konoha eleven” wonder if Naruto has finally lost his mind, because calling out for Sasuke when said Uchiha hasn’t been in the village for years is clearly a sign that the shoe has dropped, but the blond ignores it all and desesperatly calls out that name.

The search is fruitless, and as orange color the sky, Naruto has to admit defeat and go back home. He doesn’t want to, he intentionally get lost for an hour in some alleys before spotting his building a mere block away. 

He has the intense desire of turning back to the Hokage tower, were at least the silence isn’t as deafening as it is down here, but guiltily and masochist marches off to his house. 

He didn’t expect to find Sasuke there.

As in, Sasuke-Sasuke, holding up Sasuke-the-cat on his arms. 

“What? Why, no, when did you get to the village, dattebayo?!”

“Some hours ago.” He said, as if that was the most normal thing in the world.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?!”

Sasuke scowled, “Obviusly you already knew, going out and around the village shuting my name, what an usuratonkachi.”

The Uzumaki flustered at the implication, both angry and embarassed that Sasuke hear the ruckus he made, “I wasn’t-! You weren’t-! It wasn’t you!” Naruto zoomed in Sasuke-the-cat and pried her out of Sasuke-the-human’s arms. He got some scratches for his effort, good to know she is as lovely as ever, “Where did you find her?” She seemed fine, obviusly hungry but alright after all. 

“She was here, waiting for you to open the door. If you are having pets you should take better care of them, you idiot.”

“What are you doing here?” no way he wasn’t going to stay here and take Sasuke’s insults, “Didn’t you have a new trail, dattebayo?”

“The trail bring me here, I found the base of some Akatsuki wannables, too late it seems.” The last part he said sending a glance in the direction of the wall. “I was going to send a message but an attack like that… news travel fast.”

So no way of preventing it when it have already happened. 

Sasuke meowed and scratched his hands again, he looked down at her and laughed at the adsurdity of the situation. Here he was at his home, with the two Sasuke’s of his life and nothing has ever feel this rigth. 

So he decided, why the hell not?

And then he pulled Sasuke from his collar and kissed him. Never be said that Naruto has done stupidier things all his life, but this, pressing up to those soft lips was by far his best idea. Better it be now than never, when Sasuke takes his leave again and doesn’t come back for another two years. So the Uzumaki was surprised when he separated and the Uchiha chased his lips back without giving him a break, and suddenly they were kissing again. 

Maybe both of them were fools in love. 


End file.
